Cats Land JUCO Cornerback

Chris Bonney

12/11/2006

Coming into the 2006 season the Arizona Wildcat coaching staff was planning on being very picky when evaluating prospects from the JUCO level. The recruiting under Mike Stoops and his staff has been very good so far and the need for many JUCO kids is just not there anymore. So far the staff has offered only four junior college prospects and they just landed one of those four.

Santa Rosa Junior College cornerback Marquis Hundley was in Tucson this weekend for his official visit to the Cats and he left town knowing that he would be a Cat.

"I committed to JoeRob today," said Hundley of how he told his lead recruiter, Arizona DE and Special Teams Coordinator Joe Robinson. "After that I called Coach (Mike) Stoops and committed to him and they were both real excited."

While in Tucson Hundley was hosted by the most visible and well known Wildcat on roster in Sophomore Quarterback Willie Tuitama.

"The quarterback Willie Tuitama was my host," he said. "Willie is a real good guy and he showed me a really good time. We hung around with a lot of guys, I mean we just hung around with everyone and they were all real nice and good people to be around."

Marquis said that he kind of knew that Arizona was where he wanted to go before the visit and he said the visit just sealed the deal more than he thought it would.

"It was much better than I expected it to be," he said. "Everything was just perfect. The campus is real nice and the facilities are just awesome. The weight room is just amazing. Everything was what I wanted it to be and then some."

Hundley has three years to play two at the Division 1 level and he knows just what kind of competition he will face for playing time once he gets to Tucson, and he is looking forward to it.

"I know they have Antoine (Cason) and (Wilrey) Fontenot coming back," Marquis said. "I will go in and compete with those guys and everyone else. I know that I can red shirt and if that is what I have to do then that is what I have to do but I am going to go in and compete and try to get a spot from the start."

Joe Robinson served as Hundley's lead recruiter and according to Marquis he and the Cats' Special Team Coordinator hit it off from the start.

"JoeRob is a really good guy," he said. "He always shoots me straight and he is always honest with me about everything. He said that he definitely wanted to use me on special teams and I like doing that. I blocked three punts and one field goal this year so I am looking forward to the challenge of going in and earning my spot."

Marquis also had a chance to sit down with Arizona Defensive Coordinator Mark Stoops and watch some film of the defense and he said that is one of the things that sold him the most on Arizona.

"I really like the schemes that they run on defense," he said. "We watched the Cal game and I know they run a lot of zone and they put their corners in a position to make plays and I like that. I like playing man coverage too but I think I am better in a zone and we haven't really done a lot of that in junior college."

Marquis Hundley has three years to play two at Arizona and will enroll after the spring semester is over at Santa Rosa. When asked what his best attribute is, Hundley quickly replied, "Oh my speed for sure. My best 40 time here at junior college is a 4.27 but I can run consistently in the 4.3's all the time. Speed for sure is my best attribute."

Hundley will provide immediate depth in the Arizona secondary and is a definite welcome addition since it is still possible that junior cornerback Antoine Cason could leave early for the NFL draft."